Tim Sherwood has revealed a sickness bug has swept through the Aston Villa camp before their match with Sunderland.

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The manager is waiting on a number of players before Saturday’s game at Villa Park and while Sherwood refused to name the ill men he conceded he has concerns over several of his squad.

“There’s a sickness bug around the training ground so there are a few players who have not been able to make training,” he said. “We have a couple of players, I don’t want to tell you who they are but they’re not here today because they are ill.

“They are not well today and the doc is having to do some overtime. We could miss a couple and there’s a couple who are not well now. I’d rather they weren’t well now rather than tomorrow.

“There must be a bug going around, we’re just hoping it’s made its way to the north-east.”

“He hasn’t trained but we’re going to give him every opportunity to be fit,” said Sherwood. “He’s a massive talent, no one wants him to be a sensation immediately more than I do but he has come from a weaker competition [Spain’s Segunda División, with Barça’s B team] and it’s going to take him time.”

Sherwood played down the visit of Sunderland, insisting no one should read much into early results as Villa look to avoid another season of struggle.

He said: “It’s an important game but I’m not sure it’s a landmark. The team got 10 points from four games last season and ended up struggling. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish – and how you perform in the middle would help.

“They’re under no more pressure than we are, Arsenal, Chelsea too, everyone has their own pressure. The pressure is to win football matches at whatever level.

“We want to take the game to Sunderland, they sit deep and look to bring us on and we’ll certainly be coming on to them.”